Liabilities

Question 1

267(1)(a)

Answer 1

Danger to life - 14 years imprisonment

Everyone who
Intentionally or recklessly
Damages by fire or by means of any explosive
Any property
If he or she knows or ought to know
That danger to life is likely to ensue

Question 2

267(1)(b)

Answer 2

No interest - 14 years imprisonment

Everyone who
Intentionally or recklessly
And without claim of right
Damages by fire or by means of any explosive
Any immovable property, or any vehicle, ship, or aircraft
In which that person has no interest

Question 3

267(1)(c)

Answer 3

To obtain or cause loss - 14 years imprisonment

Everyone who
Intentionally damages by fire or by means of any explosive
Any immovable property or any vehicle, ship, or aircraft
With intent to obtain any benefit, or to cause loss to any other person.

Question 4

267(2)(a)

Answer 4

Damages any property - 7 years imprisonment

Everyone who
Intentionally or recklessly
And without claim of right
Damages by fire or by means of any explosive
Any property in which that person has no interest

Question 5

267(2)(b)

Answer 5

Any property with intent to obtain or cause loss

Everyone who
Intentionally or recklessly
damages by fire or by means of any explosive
Any property
With intent to obtain any benefit or cause loss to any other person

Question 6

267(3)

Answer 6

Reckless disregard safety of other property - 5 years imprisonment

Everyone who
Intentionally damages by fire or by means of any explosive
Any property
With reckless disregard for the safety of any other property

Question 7

Define benefit?

Answer 7

267(4)
In this section and in section 269, benefit means any benefit, pecuniary advantage, privilege, property, service, or valuable consideration.

Question 8

Intent

Answer 8

In a criminal law context there are two specific types of intention in an offence. Firstly there must be an intention to commit the act and secondly, an intention to get a specific result.

Question 9

Circumstantial evidence from which intent may be inferred?

Answer 9

Offenders actions and words before, during and after the event
Surrounding circumstances
The nature of the act itself

Question 10

Define recklessly?

Answer 10

Acting recklessly involves consciously and deliberately taking an unjustifiable risk.

Question 11

R v Harney

Answer 11

Recklessness means the conscious and deliberate taking of an unjustified risk. In New Zealand it involves proof that the consequences complained of could well happen, together with an intention to continue the course of conduct regardless of the risk.

Question 12

Proving recklessness?

Answer 12

1. The defendant consciously and deliberately ran a risk (subjective test)
2. The risk was unreasonable to take in the circumstances as they were known to the defendant (objective test)

Question 13

Damages by fire?

Answer 13

Although fire damage will often involve burning or charring, it is not necessary that the property is actually set alight; melting, blistering of paint or significant smoke damage may be sufficient.

Question 14

R v Archer

Answer 14

Property may be damaged if it suffers permanent or temporary physical harm or permanent or temporary impairment of its use or value.

Question 15

Define fire?

Answer 15

Fire is the result of of the process of combustion, a chemical reaction between fuel and oxygen, triggered by heat.

Question 16

Define explosive?

Answer 16

S2(a) arms act 1983

Means any substance or mixture or combination of substances which in its normal state is capable either of decomposition at such a rapid rate as to result in an explosion or of producing a pyrotechnic effect.

Question 17

List explosives under S2(b) arms act 1983?

Answer 17

Gunpowder
Nitroglycerin
Dynamite
Gun-cotton
Blasting powder
Fulminate of Mercury or of other metals
Coloured flares
Fog signals
Fuses
Rockets
Percussion caps
Detonators
Cartridges
Ammunition of all descriptions

Question 18

Are fireworks classed as explosives?

Answer 18

No.
S2(d) arms act 1983
Explosive does not include any firework as defined in S2 of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996.

Question 19

Property

Answer 19

Property includes real and personal property, and any estate or interest in any real or personal property, money, electricity, and any debt, and any thing in action, and any other right or interest.

Question 20

Knowing

Answer 20

Means knowing or correctly believing. The defendant may believe something wrongly, but cannot know something that is false.
Simester and Brookbanks

Question 21

Explain the subjective objective test in relation to knowing danger to life?

Answer 21

What was the offender thinking at the time? Did the defendant know that human life was likely to be endangered by his actions?
Subjective.

What would a reasonable person have thought on the same circumstances? Wiukd a reasonable person have recognised the risk?
Objective

Question 22

Danger to life

Answer 22

Life in this context is human life, and the danger must be to the life of someone other than the defendant.

Question 23

Claim of right

Answer 23

Section 2 CA61

Claim of right, in relation to any act, means a belief at the time of the act in a proprietary or possessory right in property in relation to which the offence is alleged to have been committed, although that belief may be based on ignorance or mistake of fact or of any matter of law other than the enactment against which the offence is alleged to have been committed.

Question 24

Hayes v R re belief?

Answer 24

Belief is not required to be reasonable or be reasonably held and may be based on ignorance or mistake. However the reasonableness of the belief may be relevant in determining whether the defendant’s assertion of the belief is credible.

Question 25

Immovable property.

Answer 25

Immovable is not defined, however in general it relates to buildings and land and things growing on land such as forests.
It will be considered immovable if it is currently fixed in place and unable to be moved, even though it may be possible to make it movable.

Question 26

Vehicle?

Answer 26

Section 2 LTA98
(a) means a contrivance equipped with wheels, tracks, or revolving runners on which it moves or is moved;
And
(b) includes a hovercraft, a skateboard, in-line skates, and roller skates.

Question 27

Under S2(c) LTA98, what is not classed as a vehicle?

Answer 27

Perambulator or pushchair
Shopping or sports trundle not propelled by mechanical power
Wheelbarrow or hand trolley
Pedestrian controlled lawnmower
A pedestrian controlled agricultural machine not propelled by mechanical power
An artical of furniture
A wheelchair not propelled by mechanical power
Any rail vehicle

Question 28

Ship?

Answer 28

S2 Crimes Act 61
Ship means every description of vessel used in navigation, however propelled; and includes any barge, lighter, dinghy, raft or like vessel; and also includes any ship belonging to or used as a ship of the armed forces of any country.

Question 29

Aircraft

Answer 29

S2 Civil Aviation Act 1990
Aircraft means any machine that can derive support in the atmosphere from the reactions of the air otherwise than by the reactions of the air against the surface of the earth.

Question 30

Interest

Answer 30

Not defined by legislation, however the courts have held that tenancy of a property constitutes an interest in it.

Question 31

In relation to a tenants interest in a property, what three things were held in R v WILSON for S267?

Answer 31

(a) where the Crown alleges that the damage by fire is intentional a tenant may be convicted if he or she has caused loss to any other person - (1)(c)
(b) where the damage by fire is either intentional or reckless a tenant may be convicted if he or she knew that danger to life was likely to ensue - (1)(a)
(c) a tenant otherwise cannot be convicted of recklessly damaging the tenanted property by fire - (1)(b)

Question 32

Obtain

Answer 32

S217 CA61

Obtain, in relation to any person, means to obtain or retain for himself or herself or any other person.

Question 33

Benefit

Answer 33

S267 (4) CA61
In this section and S169, benefit means any benefit, pecuniary advantage, privilege, property, service, or valuable consideration.

Question 34

Cause loss

Answer 34

Not defined by statute, but in most cases will involve financial detriment to the victim.

Question 35

R v Morley

Answer 35

Loss is assessed by the extent to which the complainant’s position prior to the offence has been diminished or impaired.

Question 36

Person

Answer 36

S2 CA61
Person, owner, and other words and expressions of a like kind, include the Crown and any public body or local authority, and any board, society, or company, and any other body of persons, whether incorporated or not, and the inhabitants of the district of any local authority, in relation to such acts and things as it or they are capable of doing or owning.

Question 37

Reckless disregard

Answer 37

It must be proved that the offender intended to damage some property, recognising that there was a risk of damaging other property as a consequence, but proceeding regardless of that risk.

Question 38

Attempted arson

Answer 38

S268 CA61 - 10 years

Everyone who attempts to commit arson in respect of any immovable property or any vehicle, ship, or aircraft.

Question 39

What must a person do to be guilty of an attempt?

Answer 39

Must intend to commit the offence and take a real and substantial step towards achieving that aim.

Question 40

S72(1) CA61 attempts

Answer 40

(1) every one who, having an intent to commit an offence, does or omits an act for the purpose of accomplishing his object, is guilty of an attempt to commit the offence intended, whether in the circumstances it was possible to commit the offence or not.

Question 41

S72(2)CA61 attempts

Answer 41

(2) The question whether an act done or omitted with intent to commit an offence is or is not only preparation for the commission of that offence, and to remote to Constitute an attempt to commit it, is a question of law.

Question 42

S72(3) CA61 attempts

Answer 42

(3) An act done or omitted with intent to commit an offence may constitute an attempt if it is immediately and proximately connected with the intended offence, whether or not there was any act unequivocally showing the intent to commit that offence.

Question 43

What must the Crown prove re attempted arson?

Answer 43

That the defendant intended to commit the full act of arson, and acted as he or she did for the purpose of achieving that aim.

Question 44

Explain sufficiently proximate?

Answer 44

He must have taken a real and practical step towards committing the offence.

Question 45

R v Harpur

Answer 45

The court may have regard to the conduct viewed cumulatively up to the point the conduct in question stops. The defendants conduct may be considered in its entirety. Considering how much remains to be done is always relevant, though not determinative.

Question 46

Examples of acts that constitute attempts from the American model penal code?

Answer 46

Lying in wait, searching for or following the contemplated victim.
Enticing the victim to the scene of the contemplated crime.
Reconnoitering the scene of the contemplated crime.
Unlawful entry of a structure, vehicle, enclosure in which it is contemplated that the crime will be committed.
Possession, collection or fabrication of materials to be employed in the commission of the crime.
Soliciting an innocent agent to engage in conduct constituting an element of the crime.

Question 47

S269(1) CA61

Answer 47

Intentional damage danger to life - 10 years

Everyone who
Intentionally or recklessly
Destroys or damages
Any property
If he or she knows or ought to know
That danger to life is likely to result.

Question 48

269(2)(a) CA61

Answer 48

Intentional damage no interest - 7 years

Everyone who
Intentionally or recklessly
And without claim of right,
Destroys or damages
Any property
In which that person has no interest.

Question 49

S269(2)(b) CA61

Answer 49

Intentional damage obtain benefit or cause loss - 7 years

Everyone who
Intentionally or recklessly
Destroys or damages
Any property
With intent to obtain any benefit or cause loss to any other person

Question 50

S269(3) CA61

Answer 50

Intentional damage reckless disregard other property. - 7 years

Everyone who
Intentionally destroys or damages
Any property
With reckless disregard for the safety of any other property.

Question 51

S272 CA61

Answer 51

Providing explosives to commit an offence - 2 years

Everyone who
Knowingly has in his or her possession
or makes
any explosive substance, or dangerous engine, instrument, or thing 
With intent to use
or enable another person to use 
the explosive substance, dangerous engine, instrument, or thing
To commit an offence.

Question 52

R v Hallem (explosives)

Answer 52

On a charge of knowingly having possession of an explosive substance, it must be proved that the offender knowingly had the substance in his possession and also that he knew it to be an explosive substance.

Question 53

Engine, instrument or thing?

Answer 53

A device intended to explode or cause fire or emission of noxious things.